Sometimes you just need to eat ice cream

Thursday I had big plans to get up early to head home from Nick's to get in part of my 10 mile run before work.  Ha. Ya right.  I barely made it home with enough time to shower and get ready for work.  No problem, I would run after work and then run the remaining few miles Friday.  When I got home from work at 8, all I wanted to do was put on sweatpants and eat ice cream.

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I did not want to run.  At all.  I turned to twitter, and asked for permission to skip my run.  And it twas granted.  That's twitter loves.  I decided I would give myself the night off in exchange for 5 miles Friday and 5 miles Sunday to make up the mileage.  Now I hate running the day before long runs, and I don't enjoy running the day after long runs either, so the fact that this agreement sounded much better than going for a run just proved that I truly needed the night off.

Luckily the weather was gorgeous after work and I couldn't WAIT to go for an easy 5 miler.  While digging through my t-shirt drawer for a shirt to wear, I found this gem that I had totally forgotten about.

This is my "WTF?? How could I have forgotten about this super awesome running shirt" face.  (Also, ignore the fact that I use that chair as a place to drape clean clothes over, I'm messy.)

And this is my "Channeling my nephew H-bomb's Fonzie thumbs up impression with excitement over refound sweet running shirt."  Copywrited.  Boom.

Post photo shoot, I actually decided to run.  While I was running, I realized that this was my first run under 6 miles that I've done in a long long long time.  For the record it was March 18th, when I ran 5.75 miles.  The run was great and seemed to fly by.

I did the 5 miles in 47:00 for a pace of 9:24.

1. 9:28
2. 9:24
3. 9:24
4. 9:22
5. 9:18

Being the math nerd I used to be am I was very excited that the mean, median, and mode of my splits were all 9:24.  Somehow I feel like that should be significant.  Moving on....

When I got home, I decided to whip up some culinary awesomeness for my long run fuel.  When I was visiting one of my BFFFs out in Portland a few summers back, she introduced me to Hot Lips pizza, which is literally the most delicious pizza I have ever eaten, and let's be honest, I love me some pizza.  I might even go so far as calling myself a pizza connoisseur. <---what a difficult word to spell btw.  The pizza that I haven't been able to stop thinking about since June 2008 was this asparagus/garlic number.  Since I had these key ingredients on hand I decided to whip it up.

  

Pre oven shot.  Homemade crust, chopped asparagus, 2 garlic cloves, some EVOO, basil, and mozzarella cheese.  For some reason the crust didn't really do it for me.  It came out way better on the last attempt.  Not sure if freezing it and thawing it messed it up or what.  At least it still tasted delicious.  Just didn't look very beautiful.  While the pizza was baking away, I whipped up some cheesecake brownies for dessert.  (Sorry for the crappy pic, it was taken on my cell phone.)

Once my belly was good and fed I settled in to enjoy my replacement boyfriend for the weekend.  The good news is, Taylor Lautner is still a sexy beast, like whoa.  Mmm mmmm good.

I went over 900 miles for 2009.

Friday.  Was.  Awesome.  I think all Fridays should be half days with the afternoon spent at the theater watching a highly anticipated movie.  :)  Really makes for a great day.  I loved the movie (as was to be expected, because I really enjoyed the books), and turns out I'm Team Jacob.  Who knew?  I feel wrong for saying this because, he's only 17, but my GOD that boy is Hottie McHotHot.  Easily the sexiest Taylor I know.  Ow ow!  Haha.  Ok, I'm done being a hormonal teen now, as I am no longer a hormonal teen, and that's just not as cool as a 25 year old lady.

I was sitting by my manager during the movie, and during the previews, she was concerned, "I feel like I'm going to have a huge outburst when the movie starts going!"  To which I replied, "Guaranteed my outburst comes with Jacob's first shirtless scene!"  Well wouldn't you know, that came true.  Hah.

Ok, focus Jeri.  This is a running blog.  :)  So the other part about Friday being so great, is that I got done with the movie at about 4:30pm and it was time to go run....while the sun was still out!  It was awesome.  I had an easy 5 miles on the scheduled, but since I was a bit lazy on Thursday, I did 6 miles instead.  I mapped out a route near my old apartment and set off in a light jacket and capris.  EXPOSED FLESH!  Hurrah.  I had to run quite a ways to the west to get to my old stomping grounds, so I was literally running off into the sunset.  The sun was HUGE and gorgeous, so you gotta love that, right?

I don't know what my deal was, but even on the crazy hills for the first 2 and last 2 miles, my legs were just flying.  If I had to guess, I would say I was running 9:30-9:45 pace.  Boy was I wrong.

I did my 6 miles in 55:05 for a pace of 9:11.

1. 9:12
2. 9:16
3. 9:16
4. 9:17
5. 9:16
6. 8:46 

Uh ya...that last mile?  WTF?  I was hoping that the speedier than intended hilly/easy run wouldn't spell disaster for my 12 mile long run on Saturday.

I was the biggest loser ever Friday night, and passed out on my couch at 8pm....then quickly moved to my bed for a glorious 12 hours of slumber.  Apparently my body forgot how tired it got from running.  Also, it's probably making up for almost 2 weeks of no sleep.  Damn you insomnia!!

Ahem.  I woke up at 7:15am on Saturday morning (and yes, that was after making myself go back to sleep).  I was actually wide awake at 5am!  I had planned on taking advantage of the mid-50 temps around noon to do my long run, but then there was some schedule rearranging where I thought I was going to have to leave town around lunch, so why not start the run at 8:30am?  Suuuuuure why not?  Wind chill of 27?  No prob.

I actually ate before this long run (+2 points for me!) and got bundled up for my run.  I also had to figure out how to rig up my normal iPod as my shuffle is dead and doesn't have a charger since I stepped on, and broke the one for it.  (-2 points for me).  I know you're not supposed to run with those since they have movable hard drives, but I couldn't imagine going 12 miles without tunes.

I started off the run, and the miles were flying by with no effort from me.  And I started to get freaked.  These are the paces I usually rock the last part of my long runs.
1. 9:01
2. 9:01
3. 9:11
4. 9:04 

What are the odds that I'll be able to maintain this pace for 12 miles?  The answer to this:  not likely.  Extra credit answer:  You will probably die a slow and painful death via long run.
5. 9:11
6. 9:13
7. 9:08
8. 9:19 


I was just not into this run mentally.  The biggest thing I've noticed from my time off for my injury is that I'm not in tune to my pace anymore.  I used to be able to run within about 5-10 seconds of a pace without fail, and now my pacing is all over the pace.  I'm not too concerned, because I know that will come back, but I didn't realize how great it was to have that ability until it was gone.

The last part of the run was truly brutal.  It seemed like every mile just kept getting slower and brutally more painful.
9. 9:18
10: 9:29
11. 9:18
12. 8:55

I finished the 12 miles in 1:50:13 for a pace of 9:12.  Not a bad pace at all, don't get me wrong, because this was easily the worst long run I've had for as long as I can remember.  I just never felt "into it" like I usually am, I never reached the zone, and I just hurt for 90% of it.

When I got home, I checked the temp/weather/etc. and saw that the wind gusts were 25+ mph, so that was definitely some of the crap factor for the run, but I saw something else interesting.  When I got home, the winds were out of the SSW, but when I started the run, they were out of the SSE.  Well when I run, I run first to the east for 6 miles, than back home to the west for 6 miles.  I literally ran almost the entire 12 miles against the wind.  NO WONDER IT WAS SO BRUTAL.  Eff.

Oh well, I survived and lived to tell about it.  When I got home I filled up the bath, and had the most amazing ice bath ever.  It felt sooooooooooo good.  My legs are still really tight and sore today, so I can't imagine how bad they would've been without.  The other thing that sucks, is that my digestive system was just tore up big time during the run, immediately after the run, and for most of Saturday day and night.  I'm sure it was just that I haven't done a long run for 3 weeks, and my body was pissssssed at me, but wow, that's never a good feeling.

The one gleaming highlight of my poopy long run, was that I went over 900 miles for the year during the middle of it.  I totally forgot until I was about 5 miles in (I hit 900 at 4.4) so I did a little booty shake on the trail while running, because...well...why not?  :)

Can't focus on life...too excited for New Moon.

Uff da.  That's all I have to say about my tempo run today.  I had 6 miles on the schedule with 4 of them at a tempo pace of 8:23.  I started off just dandy, but about a 1/4 of a mile into the first tempo mile I was huffing and puffing!  Ugh.  I compromised with myself, that I could cut the run to 5 miles instead of 6.  Then further compromised that I only had to do 2 miles at the tempo pace, but if I didn't hit the pace, I would have to do a 3rd (I'm a hard coach, what can I say?  :p).


It was soooooo nice running when the sun is up (gotta love my late Thursday work schedule!).  But unfortunately, I was WAY TOO overdressed for the run.  I'm used to running in 35* after dark and getting colder, not 38* with the sun up and getting warmer.  I was a sweaty mess.


I did 5 miles in 44:49 for a pace of 8:58.  I did miles 2 & 4 as my tempo miles.
1. 9:32
2. 8:27
3. 9:23
4. 8:09
5. 9:15



Um ya, mile #4?  No wonder I felt like I was going to die!  Luckily I know I still have my speed, and I'm just not as dialed in as to what that pace should "feel" like.  I think I expected to be much more out of shape speedwise, which is why I kept pushing the pace to that uncomfortable place.  It didn't help that my Garmin was showing my pace as 9-13:30.  Stupid overcast day.  :p


Ok, this is a pretty boring post, so my utmost apologies.  Oooh!  One thing I forgot to mention, after the WWR in August, I had thought I was going to lose a toe nail, because it had pretty much uprooted itself from the nail bed, but that sucker never turned black and never ditched out on me.  (Sidenote:  I've never actually gotten a black nail from running, just one from basketball, random.)  When I did my toes last night, I realized that I got a weird pink-colored nail instead of black from it.  You can tell it's dead, but it's definitely not black, and definitely a different color than the other nails.  Yay, I'm officially hardcore! :)

Now on to the important stuff:  New Moon.  Who's going to see it?!?!?  There's actually a bunch of gals in my office (my manager included!  hah!) who are taking a half day tomorrow to see the earliest matinee showing.  We are hoping that the annoying teenagers will be in school, so we can enjoy it in peace.  I'm soooooooo excited.  And also, a 14 year old girl, apparently.


I watched Twilight with a guy friend on Tuesday (yes, it took some convincing, but I'm quite the persuasive chica.... :p) and he had a thousand questions, as he had obviously not read the book.  


N:  Ok.......so all those people must be vampires, right?  Because they're sooooo pale??
J:  Yup.  But based on that logic, that would also make you a vampire....soooo......


Jeri:  1, Pale pale N:  0.  Hahah.
His new nickname is Pale face.  Poor guy.  Walked right into that one.